Flowering plants grow from a seed into a fully mature plant in a progressive series of lifecycle stages. Depending on the plant variety, such lifestyle stages typically include germination, seedling, vegetative growth, bloom/flowering, and harvest. Common examples of flowering plants include fruit-producing varieties such as tomato plants as well as floral plants such as orchids and lilies. Cannabis is another example of a rapidly growing type of flowering plant, one whose floral blooms or buds can be consumed. Such a plant can progress through its entire lifecycle in about 4-10 months.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,630,507 to Hampson et al., as originally assigned to the United States of America as Represented by The Department of Health and Human Services, the cannabinoids found in cannabis plants have certain antioxidant properties that are useful in the treatment of a variety of inflammatory, autoimmune, and other diseases. Medically-prescribed cannabis/marijuana is therefore growing as a government-regulated alternative means for relieving the symptoms of debilitating diseases. Some government entities also permit the limited sale and use of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. As a result, a nascent but growing industry of cannabis cultivation devices and methodologies has emerged.
The flowering stage of growth is of particular importance to the cultivation of cannabis and other flowering plants having a similar lifecycle. During the flowering stage of the life cycle, male plants produce the pollen needed for fertilization of the floral blooms or buds of the female plants. The pollinated flowers in turn produce the seeds necessary for germinating another plant, thus ensuring the longevity of a particular crop of plants. With respect to cannabis in particular, the flowers of any non-pollinated female plants are carefully harvested, dried, and cured. The buds are then processed for human consumption. Therefore, a substantial bud yield during the flowering stage of a plant's lifecycle is desirable. However, existing methods for the cultivation of cannabis and other flowering plants may be less than optimal in terms of maximizing such a yield.
For instance, conventional methods of cultivation include the use of broad-spectrum lighting panels, which is typically achieved via the use of bright overhead “grow light” panels, natural sunlight, or multi-spectral bands of light such as the blue-red spectrum. Compact fluorescent lamps, metal halide, high-pressure sodium grow lights, and light-emitting diode panels are examples of conventional lighting panels. Such lighting panels are typically positioned a few inches to a few feet above the canopy of the plant, and are used throughout the entirety of the vegetative and flowering stages of the plant's life cycle. However, such panels may be less than optimal in terms of floral yield, i.e., the amount or volume of floral buds or blooms produced by the flowering plant.